Accident Sends Two Cops, Woman To Area Hospitals

By Howard Schwach

Emergency personnel work on one of the two police officers injured in the Wednesday accident on Beach Channel Drive and Beach 69 Street.

A police car responding to an emergency call from other officers collided with a civilian automobile on Beach Channel Drive on Wednesday night, sending two police officers and the female driver of the second vehicle to area hospitals.

Julio Lopez, a witness, told The Wave he was stopped at a red light in the eastbound lanes of Beach Channel Drive at about 7:15 p.m. Wednesday when he heard sirens coming up behind him and looked in his rear view mirror. Lopez said he saw a police car approaching at high speed with its light flashing and its siren blaring and began to move out of its way. He then spotted another car coming southbound on Beach 69 Street, he said. Although the driver of the southbound vehicle had a green light, Lopez said, she apparently didn't see the speeding police car or hear its sirens.

The patrol car struck the civilian car, sending it into a telephone pole, Lopez told The Wave.

Police sources at the scene said that the patrol car was responding to a call for help from another NYPD unit a few blocks away. The unidentified woman driving the second car was transported to Peninsula Hospital Center by an ambulance from The Rock Volunteer Ambulance Corps.

The two unidentified police officers were transported to Jamaica Hospital by EMS ambulance.